We actually examined the idea of building a sea level canal using atomic bombs underground to create a string of craters from sea to sea. We didn’t do it, but I miss the times when Americans would imagine it at least!
“Sedan was the first in a series of experiments designed to perfect the techniques of nuclear excavation. The Sedan explosion occurred 635-feet below ground. The desert floor formed a dome 290-feet, moving 12-million tons of rock and leaving behind a crater 1,200-feet across and 320-feet deep.”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/panama-canal-sea-level-1.htm
In 1959-60, Alberta Premier Ernest Manning seriously considered using a nuke, part of Project Ploughshares, to see if it could free up oil from the Athabasca Tar Sands. The plan did not go through.